Catskill Gas Rush to be HBO Drama

Move over Fairview. Toodle-ooo Peyton Place. Bye bye Dallas. The newest television slugfest is slated for these here Catskills, and starring, well, us. HBO is planning an upcoming series about the Catskills Gas Rush, based on the 2008 New York Magazine article. And the source of the dramatic tension that will pull the story along week to week? The pull between cash poor dairy farmers struggling to raise cash to keep their family farms operating, and the New York City weekenders who have bought second homes next door. Pulitzer-prize winning writer Richard Russo, known for his penchant for writing about class conflict, has been brought on board to write the script.

There's no title yet for the series, or production date. The info I have comes from an article on THR.com (The Hollywood Reporter.)

Comments

[keith]

Oh, Halliburton provided the fracking fluid recipe. I feel SO much better now!!! :(

http://www.propublica.org/feature/buried-secrets-is-natural-gas-drilling-endangering-us-water-supplies-1113

[--]

Hey Dave,
That's great! Just the publicity our area needs to stimulate growth during a resession.

That will get your clients talking.

Casting Call! Casting Call!

Everybody into the pool!

Who is playing Jed Clampett?

--

[Bix]

This kind of thing could really mobilize opposition to gas drilling, if done right. Very good news.

[Ken]

Given the evidence left behind in other parts of the country that do this sort of drilling, I'm doubtful it will ever get approved here.

At the end of the mini-series they can show the farmers that made large sums of money selling mineral rights on property that will probably never be drilled. A sort of redistribution of wealth on a small scale - not a bad thing. Hopefully it helped some people out.

[Christian]

Great. Benzene in our water supply.
I can't wait to buy a home up there and drink some localy made benzene.

[Eric Kramer]

Monticello fails over 40 years to get a few games of blackjack going, and suddenly people are going to openly embrace gas drills in their backyards? I won't hold my breath.

[keith]

I see this weeks SC democrat also had a short article on the HBO series. I see the same guy wrote the script for "Nobody's Fool." Good movie, I have it on VHS. I liked some of the weird social relationships unique to small towns. e.g. Paul Newman and Bruce Willis have an antagonistic relationship, yet Newman still let's Willis sleep on his couch when Willis has an argument with his wife and she kicks him out of the house. But, me, I'd have run away with Melanie Griffith. Also of note, in the beginning of the movie lightning strikes Jessica Tandy's yard and she said "I think God's zeroing in on me." That line may have been a curse since that was her last movie before she died.

[Brad]

That is timely! Hopefully by the time a show ever comes out there will be a moratorium on drilling in Sullivan County given the watershed issues (and the fact the process would potentially use/pollute a billion gallons of water from the Delaware, pollute ground water (being able to light your faucet on fire doesn't interest me for some reason), create air pollution issues due to methane release, create noise pollution and destroy roads, and even possibly lead to earthquakes as it has been confirmed in parts of Texas. Wow, and if that is not enough of a double environmental hat trick, I was very depressed to learn from a recent showing of Josh Fox's not quite complete documentary called Rage of Nature(you can see parts of it at their website www.waterunderattack.com) in Narrowsburg last weekend that it can even effect food crops and livestock. And along it has been promoted as the "clean energy"? I strongly urge people to watch this movie since it is hard to ignore the many potential problems frack drilling will create for the area. I guess with the money that the few will cash in on that they can then move away.

Brad

[Falconic]

Wow. It'll be just like HBO's "The Sopranos," except that the pro-gas drilling folk are more morally reprehensible than any of Tony's crew.

[twitter.com/stopgasdrilling]

Thank you Brad for providing great insight to a very real issue on both the PA and NY side. What most people in the city do not realize is that the plans include drilling in the NYC watershed which means our water is at risk not to mention they want to use water from one of the last free flowing rivers in our country the Delaware river for hydrofracking (which is the process they use to extract the gas which includes undisclosed chemicals that eventually may end up in our drinking water)....I love David's blog...have never been a doomsday poster but when you start reading about this issue it will quite possibly scare you as to what is at risk so as Brad said go to www.waterunderattack.com or www.damascuscitizens.org for more information..Thank you David for posting about the potential HBO series and keep up your amazing work with this blog.

[Mary Ellen]

What if the tv series takes a pro-drilling stance?

[Brad]

For some reason, actually for multiple reasons, I doubt a TV series about Gas drilling with be pro- drilling (its the liberal tree-hugging media right). But I can already envision one of the scenes lifted from the documentary Rage of Nature. The locals don't feel too good after the drilling takes place nearby and they complain to the local DEP and energy company. Both of course send out reps who assure the homeowners/dairy farmer that their water is perfectly fine. When offered a glass from the tap though, all the reps politely decline. The magnanimous energy company rep eventually even offers to install some new water tanks and to truck in water - all for free, because they are such good guys, just sign this non-disclosure contract first since we'd rather not do this for everybody. That will be incredible PR for the Natural Gas cos and put a capital C on the Clean Energy spin.

Brad

[RedRooster]

well then your renters will be looking at drill wells and rigs while staying at your farmhouse

[Mary Ellen]

Hey, I could disguise them as windmills! With a little landscaping and some metal yard- art roosters and pigs, my renters will be none-the-wiser!

This will be an interesting year, and there will be a good side to whatever is decided. Better economy for Sullivan (with drilling) seeing farmers driving their red Mercedes to Agway, or(without drilling)continued pristine forests and fields, with no nervous residents waiting for some Erin Brockovich thing to happen.

Things haven't been this much fun since they closed down the Tuesday livestock auction in Jeff.

I can tell you from working for a prominent engineering firm (they built huge tollway projects through unsuspecting neighborhoods)-they always expect public outcry whatever they do. It's routine. (We had a department simply for the purpose of dealing with public outcry.)I imagine these gas guys are the same, and the protests are business-as-usual for them. Can NY turn the tide? Be ready for the 'freedom from Arab oil' argument, and the 'clean energy' thing, and 'it's too far down to touch the aquifier' thing, and 'independence for America' thing, and, the 'poor farmers deserve a break' thing. I'm sure they are well-practiced.

I await with interest.

[Rod]

I hope they have the character who gets what seems like a big check (say $160,000), buys 2 harleys, a couple of shiny new pickup trucks, is out of money and waiting for the lease to produce gas so he gets his royalty checks.

[keith]

I had a couple amendments to my last post. When I saw Star Wars, it wasn't the theater's first year since I just noticed that it opened around 1969. Also in the late 70's that theater had 2 screens and was expanded (or maybe just split) to 4 screens in the mid 80's.

[Jed Clampett Jr]

For those who live in Pa and are interested in this issue, the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) will be holding a hearing on 9/23 about withdrawing water from the Delaware for hydrofracking purposes. Not sure what time, but you could check with www.damascuscitizens.org

Jed Jr

[Hanson]

I don't think gas leases will change the economic outlook for Sullivan County in any significant way. Currently, the economy up here is so depressed that it will take much more than just a harley and a couple brand new shiny pick-ups for a farmer. What does SC produce? Hay fields, hay fields and more hay fields. Orange county, Suffolk county and many counties in Jersey produce real vegetables and fruits. Sullivan is just too high in elevation and not mild enough. Currently, the major source of income for farmers is to section off and sell land....at least the wooded parts. Leasing will help them but it will destroy the second home market. David...just pick up and go to Columbia when you are ready. City folks have enough with rigs and pollution. They want unmolested pastures and sparkling rolling hills.

[Mary Ellen]

FYI-this article was in the business section/Dallas Morning News today. Carl Pope, the Sierra Club executive director, is lobbying in Washington with the CEO of Chesapeake Energy for more natural gas incentives. It seems gas emits half the CO2 of coal. Here's the article for whoever would like to read it.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-gaslobby_18bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cf7a43.html

[keith]

I was reading Tom Friedmans current op-ed in the NY Times, he was writing France gets 80% of their electric power from nuclear plants, for US it's only 20%. This type of energy source does have radioactive waste, but it can be stored in a centralized rural location where it can be contained. Fossil Fuels put pollutants into the air where they can diffuse everywhere. Natural gas has less emissions, but can poison any area the drilling operation is in. I doubt there are many people living around Yucca Mountain (where US nuclear waste is stored). So produce 100% of power from nuclear, and transition to 100% electric vehicles and pollutant output will be substantially reduced. There's also apparently an infinite supply of nuclear material (it can even be harvested from sea water). Also, take away oil export money from the middle east and they'd be forced to industrialize or perish. Why do you think we were able to occupy Germany and Japan, yet still able to turn things around in those countries? Because they could make things like BMW's and Toyotas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/opinion/20friedman.html?hp

[Dr. J]

We do not have an infinite supply of fision or fusion material for nuclear activity. Maybe 25 years left at current pace. France better start thinking about other ways to generate its electric.

[keith]

David,

You seem to have a gas company mole on your blog. :) I won't cite any links, we all know how to Google and each of us decide for ourselves.

[keith]

The scary thing is the local residents seem to be powerless to stop this, that they're being told "it's imminent, so you may as well make the best of it."

http://sc-democrat.com/news/009September/29/news3.htm

Very troubling.

http://waterunderattack.com/